The BBC's hugely successful period drama Peaky Blinders is based on a real urban youth gang of the same name that existed in Birmingham from the 1880s to the 1910s.
But of course, Birmingham wasn't the only place where gangs terrorised the streets at that time. Liverpool's 'High Rip' gang were a ruthless mob of violent men who dished out bloody beatings with belt buckles and knives.
But even closer to home, neighbourhood youth gangs known as Scuttlers prowled the streets of Manchester and Salford during the late 19th century. Scuttling gangs formed throughout the slums of central Manchester, as well as Bradford, Gorton, Openshaw and Salford.
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Conflicts between the gangs started in the early 1870s (although the term 'Scuttler' had been in use even earlier), and erupted sporadically over the next 30-years. In an article on 'Scuttlers and scuttling' in the Manchester Guardian dated September 5, 1890, it described in detail the activities of the gangs.
A Scuttler was said to be a "lad, usually between the ages of 14 and 18". The act of scuttling was also used as a term to describe two opposing gangs of youths fighting, who were often armed with a variety of vicious weapons.
The weapons they used were said to include old cutlasses, knives, pokers, pieces of strap with iron bolts fixed to the end, and the tops of stone "pop" bottles fastened at the end of a piece of string "used for whirling round the head". However, the Scuttler's own belt wound around their fist, leaving about eight or nine inches and its heavy buckle exposed, was a favourite weapon due to it not being easily "dragged from him in a fight."
Various streets and districts had their own Scuttler gangs, known by names such as "Grey Mare Boys" of Bradford, "Ordsal Lane," "The Terrace Lads," "Hope Street" in Salford, "Bengal Street," "The Bungall Boys" of Fairfield and "Little Forty" of Hyde Road, and so on.
However, the violence of the youth gangs wasn't just kept for members of rival Scuttlers. Many newspaper reports of the time reported on members of the public being set upon by large groups of youths without provocation.
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A story in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser on February 12, 1887, documented the brutal practices of the gangs that made them so feared by the general public. The journalist wrote: "A party sallies forth, armed with knives, sticks, sling shot, and sometimes firearms.
"After a little horseplay amongst themselves they rush upon unoffending people, men, women, or children, who happen to be about, strike them down, and maltreat them. If any show of resistance be made, they never hesitate to use knives, or to kick an opponent who is down".
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Their reign of terror seemed to have reached a peak around the 1890s, when the same newspaper reported on the passing of longer jail terms for Scuttlers being convicted of violent crimes. After sentences from three to 12-months were passed on the "notorious" Oldfield Road and Hope Street Scuttler gangs, the Courier reported: "If these present sentences are not found sufficiently severe to deter others from joining such gangs, and to stamp out the gangs already in existence, the lash will probably have to be resorted to.
"These ruffians show no mercy to their victims, but they are wonderfully tender when their own flesh is concerned." The journalist goes to say there was nothing a Scuttler dreads more than the prospect of being on the receiving end of the "cat o' nine tails" – a multi-tailed whip or flail that caused excruciating pain.
And it wasn't just for their recreational violence that Scuttlers were known for. They are sometimes regarded as the first modern youth cult, advertising their fearsome occupation through their distinctive clothes: tilted caps peaking down over one eye, a silk scarf tied around their necks, fringed hair, ornate belt buckles and bell-bottom trousers.
So what happened to these youth gangs? In the 2009 book The Gangs Of Manchester: The Story Of The Scuttlers, Britain's First Youth Cult, Andrew Davies – professor of Modern Social History at the University of Liverpool – cites several factors in their demise, with the institution of lads' clubs being created by social work and education pioneers, such as Alexander Devine, being prominent.
Andrew Davies told the M.E.N. in 2009: "Scuttling diminished when the lads' clubs stared to grow. They didn't take existing gang members off the streets, but they targeted a lot of 12, 13-year olds, causing the ranks of recruitment to the gangs to diminish."
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